Feb 11, Colombo: Sri Lanka Minister of Land and Land Development Janaka Bandara Tennakoon said laws will be brought soon to ban selling lands to foreigners.

Addressing a meeting in his electorate Dambulla, the Minister stated that the Land Ordinance would be amended in this regard under the direction of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Ministry of State Administration and Home Affairs are to bring two new draft bills pertaining to the land ownership. The Minister said the amendments to the Land Ordinance would be parallel to those new laws.

The new land laws are aimed at safeguarding the land rights of Sri Lankans, he said.

Land Ministry sources say that foreigners have acquired over 10,000 acres of land in the past two decades in Sri Lanka including private land situated in the World Heritage Dutch Fort in Galle.

Out of the 6.5 million hectares of total land in Sri Lanka, 5.2 million hectares belong to the State.